From Across the Room
by LukasMalachi
Summary: What happens when Nico arrives at Olympia U? After a few weeks away, training some demigods back at the camps, Nico is back right in time for the annual Halloween party. There, he sees someone he thought he was over… turns out he's not. Set after the Heroes of Olympus and before the events of Trials of Apollo. Nico is a little older than canon.


**From Across the Room**

 **\- Chapter 1 -**

" **O** **h my gods, hey!"** Hazel came running from across the room. She looked good. Dressed up as a sexy Voodoo priestess, she fit right in with the other revealing Halloween costumes being worn by everyone.

"Welcome back!" she slightly yelled, nearly spilling the contents of her red solo cup.

"Thanks," Nico replied meagerly, looking around the party, clearly not comfortable. Nico was never one to wear revealing clothes. The most people got to see of his body was through the holes in his jeans. You would never have found him this exposed – especially at a party. He didn't know these people well enough. Plus, having lived in the 1930s, he still had a few outdated habits when it came to personal modesty.

He was the most innocent emo boy you'd ever met. Despite his dark, brooding façade, Nico had a pure soul. He hadn't ever drunk alcohol (aside from the communion wine he'd receive when his mom would drag him to communion), he'd never smoked or done any drugs, and he had never even listened to a punk metal band. Technology wasn't a friend to demigods.

He still hadn't even had his first kiss. He may have looked eighteen, but being single for eighty-eight years grew pretty old. In fact, he'd been over the whole single life probably about sixty years ago, but he couldn't really say. Time was weird at the Lotus Hotel and Casino.

"So?…" Hazel asked. Nico didn't know how to respond. In all honesty, he had stopped listening after about half a minute. Hazel wasn't the best conversationalist when drunk. Instead, he had been fixated on someone else across the room.

Dressed in bell-bottoms that hugged him just right, a tassel vest with no shirt underneath, and a braided leather headband, Jason practically glowed.

 _Oh gods… fuck._ I was not ready to Jason again. I thought I was, but I'm not. _I regret coming to this. I should leave. Find a way out – just find a way out._

"Nico?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, what?" I asked, returning my attention to Hazel.

"What're you supposed to be dressed as?"

They said I wouldn't need to wear a costume, but I just said, "Billy Joe from Green Day." Honestly, I didn't look to far off. With my leather jacket, faded band tee, and ripped jeans, I could easily pass.

"Aww, I love that bro," she commented, "but aren't you dying in that jacket? It's so hot in here." I hated that expression… dying. Too real.

"Nah, I'm good. I wear this all the time, even in training," I replied.

"Right, right… well, I'm gonna go make out with Frank," she said bluntly as she skipped off to find her boyfriend. On the way, she managed to bump into Jason, causing him to turn around to me. Being drunk in the dimly lit space, it took him a second to recognize me, but he smiled and nodded. I smiled as subtly as I could, hoping he had forgotten our whole encounter with Cupid.

I looked for Will, knowing that even if he weren't sober, he could at least talk. I didn't have much to say. I just wanted to listen and get through tonight. I normally would've just shadowed back to my dorm, but Hazel wanted me to be her DS (designated shadower) for the night and I knew I wouldn't be able to get her to leave early.

I was relieved to find Will in another room, far from Jason. People thought that we had been official, but Will wasn't really great about follow-through. We ate together at the Pavilion for a couple of weeks, but nothing else really happened. He kept me company until he ditched the party around midnight. I looked around the Clarisse's off-campus house (she was the one throwing the party) and the only people I recognized were Frank and Hazel, furiously making out in a dark corner of the hall, Jason, and Piper who was making out with her own new boy-toy.

Yeah, Piper and Jason split up. It came as a surprise to pretty much everyone. They found it too difficult to reconcile the fact that how they met was really only a planted memory.

As I looked over at Hazel, hoping that she would soon be done and we'd be able to go home, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Hey! Long time no see!" Jason said, his breath smelling sweetly of cider and apple vape. Octavian supplied an entire array of hookahs, juuls, and other illegal smoking apparatuses for the party – all with seasonal flavors: pumpkin spice, cinnamon, green apple, etc. Before I really knew what was going on, I was pulled into a bear hug against his body smooth with dried sweat.

"Hi," I squeezed out with effort.

"How was training?" he asked, letting go but still staying close to hear me.

"It was alright. Not much to it. It was nothing too hard."

"Dude, I gotta tell you, I'm actually really crossed." He smiled as he spoke, little lines crinkling in the corners of his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah…" he giggled, amused with himself. "Did you have anything tonight?"

"No… I'm not really into that."

"Did you hook up with anyone?" he asked, looking around at the many couples.

"No…"

"How come? You're a good looking guy."

"I – Err…" I stuttered, not knowing what to say.

"You got a face," he stated, looking pleased with his impressive vocabulary, "and your hair, dude… It's so soft." I blushed at this, both at the compliment and the fingers lightly brushing through the side of my hair.

"I just… I guess no one has expressed interest."

"Gods… I don't know why everyone makes such a big deal about it. I've been in love before," he said which kinda killed the mood knowing that Piper was so close. "But kissing is just friendly. Like, I've kissed so many of my friends."

 _Damn, I wish we were better friends. Shit, wait,_ I thought, _since when is Jason so –_

"Do you wanna kiss?" he asked, like it was nothing.

"Uhh… sure," I barely whispered.

"What?" his face was now super close to mine, trying to hear me better over the music. God, I was glad I put my cologne behind my ears like the pretentious little cliché it is. It was now or never.

"Sure," I whispered in response, only loud enough for him to hear.

Our lips brushed against each other. I felt his top lip under mine and his bottom lip under mine; and though I got a hit of dopamine like never before that seemed to make the world go on pause, it was over in a second.

"See? I don't know why everyone makes such a big deal out of it," he reasserted.

It may not have meant much to him, and he may not even remember it tomorrow, but neither of those thoughts lowered my spirits.


End file.
